Talent boost at OFyt

WHAT IT MEANS: Gotz will develop talent and watch over Kasi initiative. Positioned to take agency forward in coming years.

Advertising agency OFyt, which has its headquarters in Cape Town, has scored a coup in bringing leading creative director Chris Gotz back to SA. He leaves Ogilvy Chicago after a year to become a shareholder and partner in the agency led by Gary Leih, who left Ogilvy London some years back to start a company that, he said, would aggressively promote emerging talent.

The "yt" in the agency’s name stands for young talent; the "OF" for old friends, and Gotz takes up the shareholding of another respected ad personality, Greg Burke, who is settling abroad.

Gotz, who was previously executive creative director at Ogilvy Cape Town, is known for speaking his mind and had a run-in with the industry in 2015 when he alleged there had been voting irregularities during the Loeries awards.

It seems Gotz has not lost his ability to stir the pot. He worked in Chicago as global creative head on the SC Johnson business, but says the job was "not all it was cut out to be". In spite of successfully re-launching the Kiwi shoe polish brand and winning a gold award at the Cannes Lions, he says within the US environment "it was a grind to get work out". Operationally, he found it hard to have direct contact with his creative teams and this led to disagreements with senior management. He’s not the first SA creative heavyweight to experience problems like this. Others who have trod a similar path talk about greater creative latitude in the local market and brands being more willing to consider risk.

Gotz hasn’t worked at a non-network independent agency before and is excited by an environment that is not purely profit-driven. Part of his remit will be to develop young talent in the agency and keep an eye on an initiative called Kasi Friends Kasi Talent — a full-service agency providing advertising, marketing and business skills development to entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises in townships.

Leih is thrilled that he’s managed to convince Gotz to return, given his creative pedigree and experience on auto brands. For years he was the point man on Volkswagen while at Ogilvy Cape Town, and Kia is an OFyt anchor client.

Says Leih: "He likes what we’re doing at the agency, joins as a full equity partner, is probably the best SA creative director of the past decade and understands better than most the necessity and power of integration."

Leih says Gotz’s recruitment is part of a bigger plan to grow the agency, which showed 20% growth last year. He says given that Gotz is a decade younger than the other partners it positions him perfectly to take the agency forward.